One thing that my instructor in Intermediate and Advanced Photo taught me was to make projects out of what you happening to be doing. Since Summer 2016 I have been dressing up like a cowboy and driving jeep tours around Colorado Springs. Here are some of the shots I’ve gotten when have a free hand (none while driving, I promise).

Besides being an ongoing photo project, I’ve also started making a documentary about life as a tour guide, the growing Colorado Springs tourism industry, and how Colorado and the western states differentiate themselves from the rest of America. We’re living in the age where cowboys traded in their horses for jeeps.

There have been sprinklings of pics in the past here and there, but not one post dedicated to them. Some of these pictures date to last summer, and a lot of different rolls of film here, too. In order: Fujicolor 200, Cinestill 50, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Kentmere 100/AGFAPhoto APX, Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Tri-X. I plan to do a lot more shooting and interviewing this summer if I can, but this was conceived as more of a long-term project and probably won’t be finished until I finally graduate, and who knows when that will be…

Happy Anniversary to the Resurrected Camera. Inspired by the Intro to Photography class at my university, I decided to start a photo blog, dedicated to shooting film on the cheap. It all started on January 1, 2014 with a fake trailer I made using two 35mm cameras and three rolls of film.

Using still images is something that I’ve continued all the way to Overwhelming Majority very recently. As far as this blog goes, I still don’t quite know what direction to take it in this year, but I do have a few things I’m looking forward to announcing when the time is right.

For the hell of it, I’m releasing another film I made using still cameras, way back in early 2015, just as an assignment for Film Scoring class. Again, stylistically inspired by Chris Marker’s La Jetee. It’ll only be available for a limited, unspecified time:

I budgeted 5 rolls of Tri-X, utilizing the Pentax ESII and Spotmatic SPII, and was my first time editing using Final Cut Pro. Aside from all that, if anyone remembers this post at all, it’s a shot which I couldn’t find a use for in the film. Until next time, keep finding those deals in the film photography world!

Because for some reason Tri-X just isn’t enough for me. When I want something a bit different I go for the 5222, Eastman Double-X. Reasons to use Double-X? Though grainier, it’s sharper, and it gives a different look, lovely tonality. And cost, if you’re willing to invest in a 400ft roll of the stuff!

Tri-X is an everyday film, Double-X is for special occasions, and I used it for a few specific projects including my 2-semester-long (and just wrapping up) document of making Overwhelming Majority.

This current iteration was developed by Kodak in the late 1950s and then left alone, so it will give you a classic, mid-century look, especially if you use older lenses/cameras. And that is something I recommend! It requires fairly precise exposure and development can be tricky since it’s designed to be used with Kodak D-96, and anything else will boost the contrast quite a bit. Using older, low-contrast lenses will tame that somewhat. I tend to shoot it inside if the light is good enough, or outside on overcast days. I’ve seen some pretty good results from pushing, etc, though I’ve never had much luck myself.

I suppose it’s all about the mood. There’s a lot of darkness in these photos, perhaps because I tend to use Tri-X where there isn’t a whole lot of light, and it always gets the image. You can push it, pull it, overexpose or underexpose it and still get results. It’s the most versatile film I know of, the best damn black and white film ever made.

You will notice that most of what I have here are people. I suppose that with larger formats it would work great for landscape photography (which I don’t do a whole lot of in black and white), and I was experimenting a bit with caffenol back in the day, pulling film a stop and using a semi-stand development to reduce grain. Fuji Acros 100 seems to be the king of black & white landscape photography these days, but I’ve always said it’s Kodak for black & white and Fuji for color (and I’ve always said that I’ve always said). One of these days I’ll mix it up.

I’m not the only person in the world to love Tri-X, it does happen to be the best-selling black and white film in the world. Because of its latitude and forgiving latitude in not only exposure but also development, it’s used in a lot of photography programs (including mine). It was used by newspaper photographers from the 1950s to the 1980s, used by combat photographers in Vietnam, and countless street photographers to this day. Think of a famous black and white photo and chances are it was shot on Tri-X. Classic Americana.

I love seeing locals in the news! My friend Jeff Cloutier is featured on Japan Camera Hunter, it was a pretty cool treat to run across that (and evidently it’s not the first time he’s been featured). I met Jeff my first semester at UCCS when he taught the intro to sound recording class (he’s also a sound engineer, a man of many talents), and then ran into him one day when I stopped by Godec’s Photo. He later bought the business and changed the name to Cloutier Photographic, one of the three camera stores in Colorado Springs.

This is everything I love: manual focus lenses, solid metal body, and some impressive new features like interchangeable film backs (like a medium format SLR) and interchangeable lens boards: M42, Pentax K, Canon FD, Nikon F, Olympus OM. I suppose that these are all in the public domain now and this idea really intrigues me. I do run across Zuiko glass from time to time and it might be time for me to start investing in some. Also, it will have a 1/4000sec top shutter speed, plus aperture priority (though how they’ll do that on the M42 mount I don’t know yet).

So the downsides? Price, for one. I think if it were $400 I would be more interested, but £375 shipped is about $100 past that. I don’t like that the electronic system would be powered by an internal rechargeable battery (same problem I have with the Kodak super 8 camera), it seems to me that if you’re doing a lot of shooting it should be possible to drop in new batteries as needed instead of having to find a USB charging slot. Besides those two things I’m pretty excited about this camera. The extra features it would give over every other SLR I own is extremely tempting and I’m trying to justify the expense…

edit: they were funded by the beginning of the third day. Unfortunately I don’t think I can justify the expense right now, but I’ll be following their progress closely and definitely want to grab one of their cameras later on down the road!